Jul 23, 2009

Anyone who knows me can tell you I'm a bit of a nostalgic Erie Hardcore & Punk nerd. This area has spawned so many well known bands and on the other end of the spectrum, obscure gems. I'm always eager to hear about new and old bands from the area at any given time of the day. In the mid 90s I released the Erie Hardcore Scene Report CD that featured some of my former band mates earlier bands called Out of Hand. The singer from that band, Ben Frazier, had also fronted another early Erie punk band called Last Man Standing that all of my older friends would rave about. I met Ben several times through mutual friends and he was always super nice and energetic guy. I missed a lot of the early 90s era of Erie as I didn't live in the region yet but I've heard many stories of the salad days of a lot of our friends. The Continental Ballroom on 20th and Plum St in Erie was a mainstay for punk and hardcore concerts for many years. This coming weekend is a little celebration in honor of those times. The list of bands that came through the tin foil lounge (check out the ceiling in the pic below) is legendary. I played my very first show in Erie, PA there and it will forever be ingrained in my memory as one of the most exciting times of my life. So if you've got the time this weekend to see some old school Erie vets dust off a few old songs come out to the Beermug as Last Man Standing is playing. Below is a 7" of theirs that I found on Ebay a few years back. To anyone interested in the Erie music scene it's a nice taste of the eclecticism that has been produced here over the years. Even though a lot of people like to stereotype what the "Erie Sound" is Last Man Standing is even further proof that there was and still is a lot of diversity in the area. I look forward to Saturday night this weekend.

Latest News:

As of 9/6/16 all mp3 links should be updated and working again even on all of the archived posts from throughout the years. If you find a broken link please let us know in the comments section of the post and we will fix it ASAP.

If you were in any of the bands posted on here please get in touch and help shed some light on some of these great old pieces of hardcore / punk rock history. I would love to share your stories! Thanx for reading. - EMS